Operation: TACK HAMMER
Though the UNSC was initially extremely reluctant to engage in any military operations on a significant scale since the Reconstruction period began, the attack on Unmoving Virtue was the exception to this rule, and the official beginning of the War of Vengeance. Codenamed "Operation: TACK HAMMER" and conducted with the cooperation of the Sangheili Armed Forces Second Fleet of Benevolent Enlightenment, the battle was a significant victory for both participants, and saw the deployment of numerous new technologies. In this regard, it served as a combat test for UNSC prototypes, proving their reliability and effectiveness in the field, and also functioned as a psychological deterrent against further Covenant aggression. For the Sangheili, it saw the liberation of thousands of captured Sangheili slaves from the shipyards, the destruction of three significant Jiralhanae fleets, and denied the Blood Covenant control of a strategically important naval shipyard. Prelude The attack on Earth may have seen the near-total destruction of most of the Covenant fleet, but a small number of ships managed to leave before the Ark Portal was activated and the Prophet of Truth's fleet passed through. Of these, the UNSC Prowler One-Eyed Wanderer manage to attach itself to the hull of a Covenant frigate. Unintentionally carried through slipspace, the frigate and Prowler emerged above a then-Covenant colony. The One-Eyed Wanderer managed to elude detection for 76 hours, during which it managed to gain high-quality intelligence on the star system and the Covenant colony it contained - as well as the extensive network of shipyards based on the colony's single moon. While Covenant slipspace technology meant that the Prowler and frigate emerged within ten hours, the significant distance from the colony, located at 301.7 lightyears from Earth in the Tau Geminorum System, meant that it arrived in mid 2553, long after the conclusion of the Human-Covenant War, the signing of the Human-Sangheili Non-Aggression Pact, and the beginning of the UNSC's reconstruction. For a considerable amount of time afterwards, the intelligence gathered by the One-Eyed Wanderer was forgotten as humanity began the substantial task of rebuilding its shattered infrastructure and consolidating what little remained. When the UNSC diplomatic envoys to Sanghelios were approached on the subject of a joint strike against a former Covenant faction, the intelligence was resurrected and put to use. Names were put to the places; the colony was Unmoving Virtue, a former Sangheili territory captured during the chaos of the Great Schism, and the moon was home to the Thrakakrathak Naval Shipyards, a major producer of warships. Originally, the Sangheili had proposed the strike as a joint effort to deny a potentially significant enemy from controlling a strategic asset - the shipyards had been one of the Old Covenant's largest shipyards, churning out dozens of ships a year for the Covenant war effort. However, there were other advantages to be gained; since the fall of the Old Covenant, the colony had come under the control of the primarily Jiralhanae-led Blood Covenant faction, its local Sangheili populations enslaved and set to work as forced labour in the shipyards. Freeing them would be a major blow to Jiralhanae pride and a boost to Sangheili morale. Additionally, the UNSC had benefitted greatly from acquisitions of former Covenant technology, either reverse-engineered from scraps captured on the battlefield or traded peacefully as part of the Non-Aggression Pact. A variety of new ships, vehicles and weapons had entered service since the end of the way, and though they had performed superlatively in testing, still required combat trials to prove their reliability and effectiveness. The effectiveness of certain assets was also predicted by the Office of Naval Intelligence to serve as an additional deterrent to the Covenant, showcasing the vast improvements made to the UNSC Navy's ability to wage a space war. In the weeks leading up to the attack, the UNSC and Sangheili coordinated their resources, and both sides conducted reconnaissance missions of their own - the UNSC deployed the Prowlers Hunter's Arrow and Nighthawk, while the Sangheili sent a number of their own stealth corvettes, with both efforts gaining crucial intelligence on defensive emplacements, defending fleet sizes, and the state of completion of the ships in the shipyards. Battle Insertion Stage The battle began at 0745 hours, Greenwich Mean Time, on December 25, 2555. The date of Christmas Day for the attack was chosen by UNSC strategists as a meaningful morale booster - "the righteous forces coming down on the sinful", as said by Admiral Jackson, to 'Xoram's approval. After the Sangheili were given a brief outline of Earth's various religions, the significance of the date was not lost on them. The first part of the battle was to insert special forces onto Thrakakrathak. making a covert stealth infiltration, the UNSC Prowlers Hunter's Arrow and One-Eyed Wanderer launched two platoons from the 506th ODST Force Recon Battalion via SOEIV drop, while the Sangheili Fleet Stealth Ships Fidelity and Loyalty inserted members of the R'runu Warrior Creche via modified Spirit dropships. Both teams had their own mission priorities - while the ODST's were tasked with infiltrating the actual shipyards, setting explosive charges and wreaking whatever damage they could, the R'runu Creche were assigned to make contact with the Sangheili slaves. In these, the two teams were successful; the Sangheili Resistance were the first to make contact with the R'runu Warrior Creche, and while suspicious of the human presence on the world, agreed to cooperate with them. Further more, the resistance had been stockpiling an arsenal of weapons over the years, hoping for a chance for liberation and the reclamation of their lost honour, stealing assorted pistols, rifles and carbines when they could, bribing the guards, sabotaging the ships being constructed when the opportunity presented itself, and so on. As the R'runu Warrior Creche's presence became known, the resistance finally started the massive uprising against their Jiralhanae slavemasters. The infiltration of the shipyards, on the other hand, was a far more difficult prospect. Most of the "workers" had been in the slavequarters when the uprisings began, and most were now a part of it, eaving it empty - regardless, the Jiralhanae were still on the alert for potential sabotage, and Stealth Brutes patrolled the corridors. First and Second Platoon engaged in pitched firefights as they forced their way through the massive structures, making their way to the heart of the shipyards, the massive fusion reactors that powered the construction equipment. Planting a number of small FURY Tactical Nuclear Warheads, the ODST's retreated to a safe distance, fending off Jiralhanae pursuit, supported by dropships and troops launched by the UNSC Ajax, and with fire support from the Fidelity. As the Loyalty began ferrying civilians offworld to a safe world, the UNSC and Sangheili detonated the FURY's, devastating the shipyards. The majority of the ships still docked were annihilated, and a number of ships still too close to the blast were also destroyed, denying their aid to the orbital battle. As defensible positions were captured one by one, more UNSC and Sangheili troops hammered the Jiralhanae defenders, overwhelming them. Pushed back to the spaceport, the last centre of Jiralhanae control on the moon, the defenders were carried up to the Blood Covenant fleet troopships, where they would retreat to fight another day. With the moon secured, the UNSC began to strip it of anything usable - while Project EXCALIBUR's introductions had proven a stunning success, the opportunity to reverse-engineer still more former Covenant technology was too good to pass up. At the same time, the UNSC Navy assisted in the slave evacuations. Parallel to both operations was an entirely separate operation undertaken by Spartan-II Indigo Team. Though in theory they were present as heavy support should the Helljumpers fail at their mission, in actual fact they were deployed in an assassination role. Not trusting the indiscriminate effect of nuclear ordnance in such close proximity to the battle, the UNSC hoped that Indigo would be able to covertly bring down Master Chieftain Hephaestus and other members of the Blood Covenant top hierarchy. What they hadn't anticipated was that a diplomatic delegation from the New Covenant was also present, attempting to negotiate an alliance, or at least a state of non-aggression between the two factions. Hesitant to act while the Prophets were present, lest they draw the New Covenant into the conflict unintentionally, the Spartans were forced to wait for a more opportune moment. That moment would come when Hephaestus rejected the New Covenant's terms, murdering the delegation and sending their remains back to New Covenant space. Secure that their deaths could not be pinned on the UNSC, Indigo Team acted, assassinating Hephaestus and a number of his subordinated before the Jiralhanae bodyguards mobilised. Returning to the battlefield, Indigo Team arrived in time for Pelican extraction. Orbital Combat As the battle on the ground began, the first reaction of the Blood Covenant Fleet was to land reinforcements and provide orbital support - fortunately, only the first aim was achieved in any significant measure, thanks to the efforts of the One-Eyed Wanderer and Hunter's Arrow - prior to deploying the insertion teams, both Prowlers had launched a second package set to drift on predetermined courses - two Azrael shaped-charge nuclear missiles. The first was set to drift so that it would enter the atmosphere of Unmoving Virtue itself, detonating over the largest population centre, flattening its capital city. The second was targeted at the Thrakakrathak Orbital Platform, with a number of capital ships docked - its destruction robbed the Blood Covenant of vital coherence, throwing them into chaos, and drawing their attention from the ground campaign. At the same time, the forward element of the joint UNSC-Sangheili taskforce jumped in-system, consisting of the UNSC Cruiser Galadriel, four destroyers, four frigates, and six Sangheili Battlecruisers. While heavily outgunning the Blood Covenant fleet in terms of quality, they were still outnumbered and facing an enemy in a defensible position. Nevertheless, long-range combat destroyed a number of Blood Covenant cruisers, forcing the Jiralhanae fleet to close in to engage at a range where the UNSC MAC's didn't have the advantage of range - this simultaneously drew the Blood Covenant fleet away from Thrakakrathak, and positioned the enemy fleet so that the second element of the joint fleet could engage them in ideal conditions - jumping in thirty minutes after the first element had jumped in, the second wave, including four Herald-Class Assault Carriers, UNSC cruisers, destroyers and frigates, and the Sangheili Assault Carrier Bringer of Holy Light jumped in, ambushing the Blood Covenant fleet midway from Thrakakrathak to the first element, cutting the enemy off from a point of retreat. A number of enemy ships managed to escape. The Vrathek jumped to slipspace almost immediately, though the Prowler Nighthawk was covertly attached to its outer hull, eventially leading the UNSC to the Blood Covenant's secondary base of operations, Pious Ascension. Other ships were not so lucky - huge numbers of Blood Covenant ships were destroyed en masse, and when the fleet was routed, still more were annihilated as the fleet retreated. K’varkt Insurrection With most of the original Sangheili population slaughtered during the opening hours of the Great Schism, the remainder of the colony was enslaved by the Jiralhanae. Their orders had been to execute the entire population as an example to the breakaway Covenant Separatist faction, but Chieftain Hephaestus countermanded those orders, keeping them as slave labour. Most of the warriors preferred death over such dishonour, taking their own lives or rushing their guards in suicidal attacks, but such options were not available to the women, children and elderly Sangheili who were forced into labour camps at Kvarkt and fitted with trackers. Over the next three years, the lives of these slaves was made an almost unendurable hell. Jiralhanae overseers would occasionally use the elderly slaves as target practice from the slave driver watch towers, or use lone females or children as prey in their hunts, brutally dismembering their victims ritualistically in front of the other slaves. Nevertheless, within months a highly organised resistance force had set itself up, evading detection by the Blood Covenant and beginning to gain strength in firepower and numbers. The few technical experts who had survived, mostly females, set up jamming devices to interrupt the tracking signals given off by surgically embedded emitters, allowing for their extraction; weapons were covertly stolen from Jiralhanae weapons caches or from murdered guards; and raids were conducted to sabotage projects and rescue important members of the K'varkt. Still, the Blood Covenant regarded the resistance only as a nuisance, and a convenient one - with the threat of Sangheili rebels, the slave overseers were able to acquire more resources and personnel to use for "slave instruction", mostly siphoned off for profit by overseer Zagreus. Spirit dropships were designated for aerial pursuit of raiding Sangheili rebels, but for the most part were used to carry Jiralhanae hunting parties in their campaign of brutality. Under Zagreus' mismanagement, the Kvarkt slave camps simply became a glorified hunting preserve for Jiralhanae elite. When Operation: TACK HAMMER began, it was totally unprepared for attack, and scrambled its forces together. Expecting the shipyards to be the only major target, Zagreus sent most of his forces south to reinforce the defender forces, leaving only a small force in the camp to prevent a riot. Meeting with the resistance, elements of the R'runu Warrior Creche would launch a surprise strike on the camp headquarters, infiltrating with their active camouflage and slaughtering the Jiralhanae guards before they could react. Zagreus himself was publically executed by Sub-Commander Juno 'Joralan for the torment he had brought to the survivors, slowly and painfully, and the survivors were sent north to board several UNSC and SAF troop ships that had descended to the surface as the Blood Covenant fleet was drawn away. With the civilians evacuated, the R'runu creche turned south to reinforce the Sangheili legions and UNSC regiments attacking the shipyards. Participants Aftermath Quotes *"T'was the night before christmas, and all through the stars / not a creature was stirring, from Harvest to Mars / when burning and flaming, there streaked from on high / a battalion of Helljumpers, who'd kill or die / they did their job quickly, and set the nukes up / and left before the guards could even get up / and as the Brutes ran out, alarm in their eyes / they cried out, "Merry Christmas, we hope you all fry."" *"A Tack Hammer is two-sided. You use one side to set the nail, and then the other to hammer it in. Two-sided. Get it?" Category:War of Vengeance